Overview

A specimen of this species appeared as a small animal sized creature with a light brownish skin stone with a flexible shaped body. Its legs resembled tentacles of which it possessed five such appendages that were able to shoot out and latch onto distant locations. When not doing so, it used them as legs to move about its environment in its relentless search for host bodies. When finding one; either dead or alive, the Exocel simply used its appendages to force its way into the hosts mouth whereupon it commandeered the body. Dead specimens were instantly under the control of the Exocel and displayed zombie-like behavior with a single minded purpose as they ruthtlessly as well as bloodily attacked any non-infected individuals. A living host eventually succumbed to the creatures control.

Initially, infection was irreversable though an antidote was eventually developed that allowed for killing of the parasite whilst it was within its host body. Furthermore, when its host was killed, sometimes the parasite jettisoned from the dead body and attempted to take its killer as a new host. Other times, a host that had been repeatidly shot and seemingly killed could be reanimated by the Exocel making them very dangerous creatures as an apparently dead host could instantly spring back to life.

The origin of the Exocels was not known except that they lived deep beneath the Earth for an unknown number of years; whether they were a native species or an alien one was never explained. In the 20th century, a branch of the Russian Mafia led by Dmitri Yusupov established an oil drilling platform as a base of operations deep in the sea. Called the Star of Sakhalin, during drilling the creatures that were later called Exocels emerged onto the surface where they reached the platform. Yusupov had a number of scientists such as Doctor Kamsky study the creatures in order to find a means of controlling them. Others such as Pavel Bakharev were also involved in the study but he quickly discovered that Kamsky wanted to use the creatures as a means of developing biological weapons from the Exocels. This proved to be a profitable business as each prototype alone was worth 150,000 USD. However, as time went on, the patience of the Russian Mafia cartel went thin and Yusopov began strongarming Viktor to work for him. This act eventually drove Viktor insane and he decided to unleash the Exocels on not only the platforms but one of their ships called the Eastern Spirit as well. Thus, began a period of infection and deaths as the parasites used their hosts to either kill uninfected humans or use them for infestation.

During this time, CIA agent Barnett learnt of the Exocels and their presence on the Eastern Spirit and decided to seize a sample of the creatures in hopes of getting a profit through researching them. Thus, he dispatched a SEAL team to investigate the ship but all its members were killed much to Barnett's dismay. Later, howevr, the United States Coast Guard got involved and boarded the ship. Similar to the earlier SEAL team, its members were killed except for one lone individual by the name of Tom Hansen and Barnett decided to use the Coast Guard to achieve his goals. During this time, Hansen fought the Exocels along with their hosts onboard the Eastern Spirit and later on the Star of Sakhalin where he succeeded in ending the menace the creatures posed to the world.